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Section IV: Other Economic Indicators and Events

This is a list of other economic indicators or events that normally don’t have a great impact in the forex market but under some circumstances the market could react to these indicators.

For instance, in the US with the recently mortgage crisis (Q3 2007) construction indicators could turn into very important indicators and therefore have a major impact in the market.

Another example would be oil prices, as they are near the all time high (and have been reaching new highs in the past months) investors and traders tend to focus on oil prices.

Economic Data

Industrial production (world) – This report consists of the total (and change in) production of factories, mines and utilities within one nation. This indicator is commonly used as a proxy variable for economic growth.

Producer price index (world) – Index designed to measure the change in price (as the CPI) from the seller perspective. Goods and services producers use for production.

Capacity utilization (world) – Refers to the total industrial output divided by the total production capability, measures the degree to which all factories are being used.

Business inventories (world) – This report consists of all items produced over a specific period of time, but were never sold and are held for future sales.

Durable goods(US) – Total sales of goods that have a greater life than 3 years. This indicator shows the propensity to spend and the consumer confidence over a period of time.

Productivity(world) – Measures the change of goods and services produced per unit of input. This indicator is an important component of growth.

Factory orders (US) – This report refers to the total orders of durable goods and non-durable goods. This report shows the pace of factories for the coming months.

Employment cost index(US) – Measures the changes in wages, salaries and inflation, as well as other benefits in non-agricultural industries.

Construction and housing indicators(world) – All indicators related to the construction area. These indicators are seen as an important catalyst for any economy as well as an overall growth indication:

Housing starts and building permits

Construction spending

New home sales

Leading economic indicator index (world) – This index consists of 10 different indicators, including: vendor performance, change in sensitive material prices, average work week, weekly jobless claims, new orders for consumer goods and materials, business permits and others. All indicators are equally weighted since all of them are relevant to the economy.

Jobless claims (US) – An indicator that shows the number of unemployment claims reported. This indicator is released every Thursday of the week.

Tertiary Industry Index (Japan) – Measures the performance of the service sector in Japan’s economy. The Service sector is more indicative of the domestic economic activity than the manufacturing industry as the later are mainly exports.

G7 meeting (world) – Is a meeting in which the 7 most important economies in the world (plus other important economies) discuss global issues including currency issues, such as Yuan revaluation.

Oil prices (world) – This economic indicator has a strong negative correlation with the USD and has become very popular in the Forex market. As the oil prices go up, the USD usually go down, the opposite is also true.Surveys

Michigan consumer sentiment index (US) – Survey conducted by the University of Michigan on consumers. It gives investors and traders a general idea of the feeling of consumers.

Empire State Manufacturing Survey (US) – This is a survey conducted on New York manufacturing executives. Although NY is a pretty small sample is has shown to be of good correlation to the overall manufacturing industry in the US.

Philadelphia FED Survey (US) – Regional index that measures changes in the business growth of the manufacturing industry. When this index is above zero it indicates expansion, when at zero indicates no change, and below zero indicates contraction.